CAREER: Implications of a neurobiological model of memory for education: how novelty exposure transforms poor learning into durable memories

这项由德克萨斯大学一名新研究员领导的项目的目标是了解糟糕的学习可以转化为持久记忆的条件，最终目标是改善教育结果。该项目利用了对啮齿动物进行的开创性行为神经科学研究，表明在学习期间接触新奇事物可以增强微弱的记忆。众所周知，接触新奇事物会刺激与长期记忆形成有关的分子和细胞过程。值得注意的是，现在在实验室动物身上有强有力的证据表明，接触新奇事物可以作为一种工具，来稳定在接触新奇事物时学习到的其他形成不良的记忆。这种认为接触新奇事物会追溯地增强对先前经历的记忆的想法，挑战了关于动物如何学习和记忆信息的常见假设。它还提出了一系列有趣而重要的问题，即如何利用人类的新奇接触来改善对容易忘记的信息的记忆。一系列的行为、心理生理学和神经成像实验将试图解决将新颖性用作拯救学习能力薄弱的工具的参数。该项目将在生物学和地球科学等领域对概念性学习进行研究，这项研究的最终目标是开发创新和廉价的工具，以促进现实世界中的学习和记忆。除了该研究项目，还有一项面向学生和当地社区的公共宣传计划、导师制，以及一项与教育研究人员开展合作的计划，最终将研究成果转化为在真正的教育环境中提高学习成绩的计划。该项目由EHR核心研究(ECR)项目向德克萨斯大学颁发的职业奖项支持，该项目支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。该项目试图将啮齿动物行为神经科学中发现的“行为标记”的概念转化为人类。行为标记是基于长期记忆的神经生物学模型(称为突触标记)，该模型详细说明了弱突触增强是如何为长期记忆创造条件的，但前提是弱突触增强伴随着关键时间窗内更强的突触增强。行为标记将这种神经生物学模型扩展到行为领域，表明次优学习可以在学习后通过一个单独的、更突出的体验来拯救。新鲜感经常被用作这种独立的、更显著的体验，因为众所周知，新鲜感会诱导海马体中的长期增强，通过中脑向海马体释放多巴胺，并上调可塑性相关基因。因此，接触新奇事物可能是一种有价值的工具，可以刺激几乎在同一时间学习的其他信息的记忆形成。事实上，啮齿类动物的研究表明，如果学习伴随着随后暴露在新的开阔领域中，形成不良的海马体依赖记忆会转化为持久的长期记忆。这个项目将在人类身上测试行为标记假说。人们将发现，新奇的暴露是否可以改善一系列海马区依赖的记忆，包括空间记忆、情境恐惧条件反射、模式分离、记忆整合以及教育相关材料的学习和转移。其目标是深入了解新颖性是否以及如何增强人类的不良记忆，最终目标是发现直接、廉价和创新的工具来改善STEM学习。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this project, led by a new investigator at the University of Texas, is to understand the conditions by which poor learning can be transformed into a durable memory, with the ultimate goal of improving educational outcomes. The project leverages groundbreaking behavioral neuroscience research in rodents showing that weak memories can be enhanced through exposure to novelty around the time of learning. It is known that novelty exposure stimulates the molecular and cellular processes involved in long-term memory formation. Remarkably, there is now strong evidence in laboratory animals that novelty exposure can be used as a tool to stabilize other, poorly formed, memories learned around the time of novelty exposure. This idea that novelty exposure retroactively strengthens memory for prior experiences has challenged common assumptions about how animals learn and remember information. It also raises a host of intriguing and important questions on how to harness novelty exposure in humans to improve memory for information that is prone to forgetting. A series of behavioral, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging experiments will attempt to address the parameters by which novelty can be used as a tool to rescue weak learning. The project will culminate in a study of conceptual learning in such fields as biology and geoscience The ultimate goal of this research is to develop innovative and inexpensive tools for promoting learning and memory in real-world settings. Alongside the research project is a plan for public outreach to students and the local community, mentorship, and a plan to develop collaborations with educational researchers to ultimately translate research findings to improve learning performance in authentic educational settings. The project is supported by a CAREER award to the University of Texas by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning.This project attempts to translate the concept of 'behavioral tagging,' which was discovered in rodent behavioral neuroscience, to humans. Behavioral tagging is based on a neurobiological model of long-term memory (known as 'synaptic tagging') which details how weak synaptic potentiation creates the conditions for a long-term memory, but only if weak potentiation is accompanied by stronger synaptic potentiation within a critical time window. Behavioral tagging extends this neurobiological model to the realm of behavior by showing that suboptimal learning can be rescued by a separate and more salient experience after learning. Novelty exposure is often utilized as this separate and more salient experience, as it is well-known that novelty induces long-term potentiation in the hippocampus, releases dopamine to the hippocampus via the midbrain, and upregulates plasticity related genes. Thus, novelty exposure may be a valuable tool to stimulate memory formation for other information learned around the same time. Indeed, rodent studies show that poorly formed hippocampal-dependent memories are transformed into durable long-term memories if learning is accompanied by subsequent exposure to a novel open field. This project will test the behavioral tagging hypothesis in humans. It will be discovered whether novelty exposure can improve a host of hippocampal-dependent memories including spatial memory, contextual fear conditioning, pattern separation, memory integration, and learning and transfer of educationally-relevant material. The goal is to gain insight on whether and how novelty enhances poorly formed memories in humans, with the ultimate goal of discovering straightforward, inexpensive, and innovative tools to improve STEM learning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.